


From the Cold and Frost

by Niki



Series: International Treasures [3]
Category: National Treasure (2004)
Genre: Adventure, Atlantis, Established Relationship, F/M, Families of Choice, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-22
Updated: 2012-02-22
Packaged: 2017-10-31 14:39:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/345221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niki/pseuds/Niki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The <i>next</i> treasure, though to be fair, it's really a part of the previous one...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mina; "Many Runes the Cold Has Told Me"

_Shall I bring these songs together  
From the cold and frost collect them?_

From _The Kalevala_ , translated by John Martin Crawford, 1887

Depending on how you define things, people have been living, dying and getting born in Antarctica for a couple of centuries. Some even get married here, even though the legality of such ceremonies is often in question due to the international nature of the continent.

We still don't know how long the city structure we call Atlantis has been here, or how long ago it was abandoned – but we do know its history spans thousands of years. How long ago was the last bonding ceremony of any sort held within these walls?

Before ours, that is. It's not legal, and it doesn't need to be. I'm not a member of any church, and religion means little to Riley. We can take care of the government's side of it later; we just wanted to exchange our vows here, in this place that is to be our home for a long time.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

It took time to sort out everything after the night Anne crossed the line from obsession to insanity. Patrick needed immediate medical attention, and was first treated by our team doctor, then the closest science station – which happened to be American – offered help and their medical team performed an emergency operation which enabled him to survive the trip home. We invited the doctors to our wedding.

Ian and his men stayed behind to protect our site, while Ben worked from the base camp to arrange a more permanent research post. Abigail and later Patrick took care of things in the States, and Ben's contacts all over the world made sure everything went smoother than I could ever have believed.

I wrote the first press releases. We kept the whole incident with guns silent, and I mentioned Anne as part of the group responsible for locating the lost city. None of us wanted to strip her of that, despite everything. She is officially out of the project for medical reasons. Well, that's not really a lie, except that I didn't actually spell out that she's in the Psychiatrisch Ziekenhuis Veldwijk – a mental institution back in the Netherlands.

We assembled a perfect team to work in our lost city. Thankfully, I don't have to lead it. Ben found a perfect leader for the project in an older professor who is more used to dealing with the politics of an operation this size than me. I am technically just a part of the team but everyone knows this is _my_ project, my baby. I have my say in every decision, I'm the first to learn about any new find.

We have experts on every field one could dream of, and I genuinely like all of these people – you have to, working in these surroundings. Some of us sleep in the buildings we built next to the mountain, some in Atlantis itself. Needless to mention, I – we – live here.

That's what you want to hear about, isn't it? Riley and me, how we are doing?

Just fine, thank you very much. I love him to bits. I don't think any one of us would survive sane here without his irreverent humour. He's wonderful – I was worried about how he'd feel about living in the 'Frozen Wonderland Behind God's Back' as he so eloquently refers to the land but when ever I ask he just shrugs, gives me that smile – you know the one I mean – and says that as long as he has his Internet access and me he'll make do. Not necessarily in that order.

He is invaluable, really, doing whatever is needed. Cataloguing, solving any computer problems we have – and in these conditions you have plenty – and even holding a flashlight to a squealing linguist on occasion. He also makes sure I eat and sleep, and not just spend my days staring at the walls.

We do manage to have quite a lot of sex, too. Hey, it's our honeymoon, after all. Yes, I'm grinning widely writing that.

We make new discoveries every day. The first one that took my breath away as much as the first glimpse of the place is a room – or a set of rooms... wait, I'll need to explain a bit. We have discovered many connected sets of rooms we have taken to calling apartments. They don't always resemble living spaces but are somehow a coherent whole in this beehive of a mountain where everything is interconnected. 

So, in our systematic research of the place we stumbled into this 'apartment' we dubbed the Story Room. The walls are filled with carvings and paintings like everywhere but these are different. Every room tells a story. The text we still can't translate but the pictures are clear enough. And even Riley can recognise the myth, though for us it is more familiar in a Greek context. It's about spring, and families, and love, and about the king of the underworld kidnapping a queen for himself. Hades and Persephone. Pluto and Proserpina. Oh... my... Go...

"Well, we knew they sailed around the world," Riley pointed out and I wanted to hit him. Being reasonable when I was speechless?

"Yeah, but this is... it's... the first proof we have of... the influence..." I swallowed, hugging him, hugging the others who had been assigned to our team along that corridor.

I remember whispering, reverently "The Kings of Atlantis Become the Gods of the Greeks" while staring at the wall. 

Riley didn't even need to ask this time. He is used to me quoting Ignatius Donnelly by now.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., 

It took us six months to stumble into our first Atlanteans.

We have a system. We establish research in the rooms we have gone through before venturing forth to find more. That's why we only advance a few rooms a day. Everything needs to be catalogued and photographed before moving on. We only make that much progress because we have so many people to do this. 

We divide into smaller teams and everyone takes turns in 'exploring duty' as well as 'cataloguing duty'. Yes, Riley's terms. As is the whole concept of 'venturing worth', I might add. 

I try to do my exploring with Riley, not only because otherwise we spend way too little time together but also because it truly is a joy. I never know how he is going to react to things, or what he is going to say.

I wouldn't have expected his reaction to finding a room filled with human remains to be what it was.

"Huh, bodies," was all he said, seeing the piles of mummified remains.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised he wasn't more troubled.

"You handled that well."

"Well, hanging around you academicians has certain... what's the opposite of 'a perk'?"

I honestly don't remember whether I kicked him or kissed him. I seem to do a lot of both.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

I'll have to stop writing soon. I'm getting tired. I seem to be getting tired a lot easier these days. Maybe it's because I seem to forget to go out in the sun most days. Or the fact that I'd forget to eat if Riley didn't bug me. Healthy foods too. Who'd have thought? 

Or maybe it's all that sex that's cutting into my sleeping hours. 

Yeah. I'm – we're – happy. Pretty darn happy. The only thing that frustrates me no end is the fact that we still can't make head or tails of the language. My dream, and I can't crack it. Where's my Rosetta stone, dammit? I had hoped the shared myths would help but no. All this history, the wealth of information... and like the Etruscan language, we can't read it. It's killing me, and I just want to go through more rooms, unwilling to wait, unable to believe we wouldn't find anything that could help. Just like Riley said, they _did_ sail the world. They made the map. They made the disk.  
Didn't they bring _anything_ back? Didn't they learn any languages? Or were they really all gone before other written languages emerged?

Well, at least we know the Nazis didn't empty Atlantis, after all. With the size of this place that would have taken decades. It took us months to reach parts they left untouched, though, and still we haven't found much. 

We have come to the conclusion that the lower we get, the farther back in time we go. I am willing to buy the theory that the city started on the ground level and every time they needed more room the Atlanteans built – dug – upwards. They kept abandoning the older, lower, levels and took their belongings with them. We have a working theory that there have been windows and even rooms outside the mountain as well but these have been destroyed by the snow and ice. 

So the part we entered was probably the newest, or latest, part of the city, and therefore rich in artefacts. I can but hope Ian and Ben are successful in locating them.


	2. Ben;  "Songs Preserved from Distant Ages"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of concentration camps and the treatment of homosexuals during and after the War which might upset some people. History is ugly sometimes.

In all the articles written about me, my family, and our quest for the Templar treasure the last weeks of the search got the most attention. The action, the drama (even though most of it was hushed up, of course), the excitement. What almost everyone left out were the years of paperwork, the hours spent in musty archives and libraries doing research. Not exciting enough.

I like it. I like the action, yeah, but I get as much pleasure from discovering the next clue in a musty old newspaper as I would – did – from finding hidden inventions in famous buildings. 

So this is nothing new to me, the hours we spend in archives and libraries and discussions with scholars. Of course, this time the material is in German, which adds the further problem of needing a translator. Ian speaks some German which helps, and even I can spot familiar place names and important names but it's not enough.

We called Abigail in to help. She was born here and even though her family moved to the States when she was just two, she is bilingual. And she thrives on research, telling us first thing that she'll leave the actual diving for us. Me and Ian, that is.

It could be awkward, this. I mean, we have worked with Abigail for more than a year now but... there have always been others around. Now it's just me, Ian and Abigail and we need to... talk.

I'm so looking forward to that.

But back to the research. What we have discovered so far is that there's nothing to discover. When the bulk of Ahnenerbe's papers were discovered in a cave near the village of Pottenstein in Bavaria, there was nothing, absolutely no mention of the expedition in the South despite having detailed descriptions of their other expeditions to many exotic locations as well as the medical tests the Ahnenerbe scientists had performed on the concentration camp prisoners, including the infamous Jewish skeleton collection. So either the Atlantis papers were part of the material that was destroyed or... or then someone was playing into their own purses and the information was never shared with the main office.

Atlantis... that's huge. You'd think _something_ would have surfaced after the war? Could of course be that they destroyed the evidence and kept quiet because Mina and her team have recovered evidence that the Atlanteans might have been black. That wouldn't fit well into Heinrich Himmler's insistence that the Aryans created civilisation.

Are the artefacts destroyed? Why go through all that trouble of getting the stuff out of the place if they were just going to destroy them?

And how did the Nazis find the city in the first place? Did they, too, have a map? So many questions, so little clues that I would be ready to believe we have imagined the whole thing but for two solid facts: Atlantis _does_ exist, and the Nazis _did_ go there. So why isn't there a single mention of an expedition in the Antarctic area?

We have exhausted most of our leads. We tried following Anne's grandfather's career, hoping to get some clues about the expedition through his service years. The information we have discovered is patchy at best but it does suggest that the excursion took place in the last years of the war when Ahnenerbe was already so big it could have been possible to have secrets within the organisation, maybe even from Himmler himself.

The other avenue, the lake itself, is even more difficult because even though it is not that big it is very deep, and diving in blind would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. 

Well, you never know. Abigail knows someone who knows someone who might have heard something about someone who... you get the point. We're on our way to meet a Mrs Schreiber whose son was working on something that might interest us before his death some decades ago.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

"Frau Schreiber, thank you for talking to us," Abigail says and introduces us. She is speaking in English, having explained to us that our hostess understands the language well enough, only refuses to speak it herself. 

"Setzen Sie, bitte," the old lady says, more of a command than a request, and we sit down, me and Ian on a sofa and Abigail on a chair next to Mrs Schreiber's armchair.

She is in her eighties, a handsome woman who sits straight in her chair – like she has been taught to sit with a book on top of her head and has never forgotten the lessons. 

She starts talking and Abigail translates. Apparently, her son, Dietfried, was a journalist, looking into the mystery of the lake Toplitz. Because he did his research in the sixties he was actually able to locate eyewitnesses, and even a soldier who allegedly was a part of the party that dumped the crates into the lake.

And at that bombshells she shuts up. I feel like yelling out of pure frustration but Ian touches my arm in calming manner. Abigail's eyes are filled with compassion when she asks our hostess about what happened to her son.

She is obviously unwilling to tell us but then she notices Ian's hand on my arm and smiles for the first time since we came.

"You are together?" she asks in English, and I am surprised about her perceptiveness. We're not that obvious, we can't afford to be. Not even in Europe, even though Ian keeps telling me it's different here.

Ian lets his hand slide down until he's covering my hand with his.

"Yes," he replies simply.

"I wish happiness to you, from my heart." She is quiet for a moment, then starts talking, quietly, in her lightly accented English.

"Before the war we lived in Berlin, my parents, me, and my brother. He was twenty, and handsome, and happy, and he had a lover. My parents did not know but I did, and I was glad for him. Even though we are German, when they start taking the Jews away they also take him away, take both of them away. Later I learn his lover died in the camp but he lived. Then the war was over and the British and the Americans were freeing the Jews. But no one freed the Homosexuals. They are still criminals. They go to prison for their... crimes. Their years in the camp are not even counted in their sentences." 

She pauses and I think she's about to cry but she doesn't. Maybe she has no tears left, but I find I have to blink quite rapidly. Abigail is crying quietly.

"The laws change in the 60's. My brother comes out of prison, and Dietfried does not want to write about anything but how his uncle has been treated. They die in a car accident three months later."

I look at this frail, proud old woman with her dry eyes and feel like a bastard for still wanting to know about his son's research. And to my amazement she smiles again.

"It is better now. The law is just now, and even people change. They mention them now, the forgotten ones. They have monuments. People like him, like you, can walk in the street and hold hands, just like me and my husband. You want to go treasure hunting? You can have Diet's papers. I saved all of them."

"Danke schön, Frau Schreiber, vielen Dank," I get out.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

"Damn, what a story," I say outside her door.

I can't help put pull Ian into a hug as soon as we have left the building. 

"I feel so ashamed for having it so easy. I don't have to fear dying because I love you," I mutter against his hair. 

"When we get back to Berlin," Abigail says decisively, "we are going to go visit one of the monuments she mentioned. I feel like... paying my respects."

"You get no refusal from us," Ian replies for both of us.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Dietfried Schreiber's research is a goldmine. Abigail translates his complete notes on an interview of a young soldier who was loading the boxes that were later dumped into the lake. And then we get our clue: the boxes were not just dumped, they were hidden in a _cave_ that had been formed in the torpedo tests. He doesn't provide coordinates or anything as easy as that but his descriptions should aid us in locating the cave.

We can find them. We can actually find them.

"So, we tell Riley and Mina now or when we have the boxes?" I ask, leaning back on the office chair we purchased for the hotel room to make working easier during our stay.

Ian gets up from his seat to come stand next to my chair. His grin is teasing and sexy as hell. 

"Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you? How did Riley put it? Just because you got lucky twice doesn't mean you'll strike gold every time you dig."

"I got lucky alright," I reply, with a grin of my own, and pull his head down for a kiss. Before our lips meet I remember Abigail is still in the room.

I turn to look at her and she smiles slightly.

"I think that's my cue to leave," she says, and walks to the door.

As soon as the door has closed behind her I take that kiss, and we remove ourselves into the bedroom to celebrate. 

I never get tired of this, him. Kissing him, burying my hands in his hair (he's kept it short ever since he came out of the prison), arching my neck when he bites me just low enough for the t-shirt to cover the mark, running my fingers down his back, tracing the old scars, touching and kissing and licking every part of him I can reach and then some. 

I enjoy the feel of his skin, his muscles, the strength that meets mine. The knowledge I can't hurt him or break him no matter how hard we play, how desperate I get, how hasty we are. We can do gentle, we can do rough, we can do everything in between; we can do dirty, we can do considerate, and damn it, every time _still_ feels better than ever before. I think I must be in love. 

It's very mutual.

Afterwards, Ian holds me close, running his fingers lazily on my skin. This, too, is normal. The moments of tenderness we are not ashamed of.

"It would be worth it," he says quietly. 

"Huh?" I am torn out of my musings by his serious tone.

"This. Even if we had to die for it."

This from a man who waited over four decades to get the words 'I love you' out of his mouth. Damn, he never stops taking my breath away.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

We meet Abigail for breakfast. She seems to have spent a sleepless night.

"I have been... thinking," she says quietly, staring at her cup of coffee, and I meet Ian's gaze briefly. Is this the talk I've been dreading?

"About?" I encourage her.

"You and Ian, me and you," she replies and meets my eyes.

"Ah." I don't really know what to say.

"Should I... leave you to it?" Ian asks.

"No, don't. I..." Abigail seems to be searching for the right words, then takes a deep breath. "I hated you for so long," she admits, looking at Ian.

"I didn't hate you when you were threatening us, or when you chased us. I feared you. But when I realised Ben felt... more for you than he did for me, I..."

"I didn't know," I say. She was so... reasonable when she told me to go to Ian.

"I had time to make my peace with it before you... before we... I was... resigned. I knew I had to learn to tolerate him if I didn't want to lose you. I don't love you anymore, I don't want you back, it's not that. But I have always _liked_ you more than loved, and I valued your friendship. I still do. But..." She smiles to Ian, now.

"I learned to genuinely like you too. You're good to Ben, and you are... a good man, despite everything that has happened."

"Thank you," Ian says quietly.

"What I'm trying to say is... I've been... holding back. I've just been polite but now I... Can we be friends? You don't need to hide what you have from me, I won't start crying if you kiss in front of me, and I promise not to... make you feel uncomfortable. It was easier to act like nothing had happened when the whole group was around but now... I have to deal with the break up. And I have to deal with the reality that is you two."

"We never wanted to rub your face in it."

"I know, and I'm grateful. But I shouldn't have made you feel like you need to hide. I don't want to forget what we had. But I'm over it. Friends?" she asks, offering me her right hand.

"Friends," I say, and take her hand.

She offers her left hand to Ian.

"Friends," he also says.

"Now... How about we blow this joint and go to Austria?"

I respond to her suggestion with a grin and lean in to kiss her cheek. Ian follows my example.

"Austria it is."

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Hidden in the Austrian Alps and shadowed by a dense forest the Toplitzsee was almost inaccessible in 1945. These days there's a perfectly serviceable road but that doesn't solve all of the problems. Without my reputation we wouldn't have even been granted a permission to research the lake. So many have tried and died that the government does not let anyone dive these days – but who could say no to a man who found the fabled Templar treasure _and_ Atlantis? I have to say, after the decades of ridicule my family has suffered, I quite enjoy the benefits of fame.

Stories of what the Nazis did here and what they hid here, and even what has been found, differ greatly. What we have been able to confirm is that they did test explosives and torpedoes here in the beginning of the war, and remains of those tests have been found. They also dumped counterfeit money here, a leftover from a plot to destroy the economy of their enemies. The bills were in wooden crates that have since disintegrated in the water. There have always been rumours of gold and treasure hidden here but no one has ever found any traces of that. 

Dietfried's source maintains that the boxes they delivered here in 1945 were metal, and as such contained something that was meant to survive the storage underwater. It makes sense that they would not have been dumped into the depths because with the technology of the day they would have been impossible to retrieve. That's why I believe in the cave story. 

Dietfried's SS man didn't think they hid gold, or stolen property from the prisoners. He claimed he had been transporting something from one of the Ahnenerbe buildings but without Himmler's say-so. His colonel was working on his own. Does that mean we've found one of our conspirators?

Would SS-Standartenführer Wolff Hegewald really have been able to hide an operation the size of an expedition to Antarctica from the head of the SS, especially in the last years of the war when the army was lacking in resources and men? Sounds incredible, I admit. Would he have been able to disguise it as something else? But the manpower, the scientists... the logistics, the ships... the more I think about it the more incredible it sounds. 

When discussing this with Ian he points out that we shouldn't have been able to find Atlantis in the first place, with what we had to work on. And had _we_ perished in our quest, no outsider would have known our true goal. He has a point. 

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Getting the needed equipment to the lake was difficult because it is so high in the mountains – dead mountains, they call them. The lake is also 'dead', devoid of almost all life after the first 20 metres because of the lack of oxygen below that. The surroundings look beautiful but I'm in no hurry to dive into the water. I couldn't even tell you why I feel like that, I'm not superstitious as a rule.

It's a bright June morning when I don my diving gear for the first time in years. We have spent a week doing calculations and scouting by the lake before risking going down, and I've used the time to test the equipment and my skills. I'm well aware that entering a cave in the canyon wall I risk stumbling to unexploded material. I'd much rather do this on my own but only fools dive alone. Ian is a fairly good recreational diver, and some of his men are also licensed, and can act as our back up on ground. I'm not happy risking anyone else, especially Ian, and Ian is not happy about risking me but we both understand the requirements of the trade. Besides, I was trained to do this. 

There are not many of us; me and Ian, Abigail, a few of Ian's men, and some technicians I've known for years. We'll be going in with a waterproof camera that provides instant picture to the team on the shore. We also invested on the latest gear so that we can communicate underwater with Ian, as well as with the team.

The conditions are hardly ideal for diving. The water is murky, and I can barely see where I'm going despite the bright light of my headgear. I find the canyon wall, and follow it down, seeing here and there holes made by torpedoes, all of them too small for our purposes. If the boxes required many men to lift one, they'd have to be big.

Resisting temptation to move sideways I follow the search pattern we set up, for the first time happy I'm not alone down here. 

"Ian?" I say even before I have time to think about it.

His reply is instantaneous in my earplugs. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just... damn creepy down here," I say sheepishly, and can hear the laughter in his reply.

"I'll say. Glad I'm not here alone."

"I'm willing to concede the fact... hey, I think I found something. I can't see... yes, definitely a larger hole than the previous ones. Can you see it?"

"Yes. Worth checking, I suppose," Ian says.

"We can see it too," Abigail tells us.

"I'm going in," I say, following the safety guidelines we drew – one goes in, one stays outside the cave, connected with a rope. If the audio link fails, we can always communicate the old fashioned way with tugs on the rope.

"Be careful," Ian says.

"Always."

I swim in carefully, having just enough room to manoeuvre with the camera. I make sweeping movements with my headlamp but it's soon clear that this one is a dead end. 

"Metallic remains of the ammunition?" Abigail's voice suggests through the radio.

"Seems like it."

Then starts the interesting operation of backing out of the cave – it's too small for me to be able to turn around. I get out just as I start feeling a little claustrophobic.

"That wasn't fun," I mutter, and we move further down.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

The search is of course prolonged due to the breaks we take after every 30 minutes, and because we can't exceed the three hour diving time for each day. But three days and miles of canyon range behind us, we find the biggest cave yet. I move in, execute the usual search pattern... and freeze when the beam hits something not natural in its form. Square shapes. Covered in all sorts of garbage but definitely square.

"I'll be damned... would you look at that," I get out. 

I swim closer, and count the shapes. There are at least five boxes, perfectly preserved despite their long submersion. 

"Well, we found _something_ ," Abigail's deceptively calm voice says.

The mask prevents my grin showing when I turn to show thumbs up to Ian who has scrapped the security measures and followed me into the cave.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Another day's work and we have the boxes up. We resisted temptation to open them before we had all on ground. They are housed in a sealed tent, to protect them from the elements and the air they have not been in touch with for decades.

My hands are shaking barely perceptibly when I reach to open the first box. 

It's sealed well but after a brief struggle we have the lid open, and find out the insides are still dry. Then we are tearing through the protective padding. 

"Amber," I say, looking at the contents, then, taking stock the amount and shape of the pieces my eyes shoot to meet Ian's gaze. "Amber!"

"Oh my God..." Abigail whispers.

"The Amber Room..." I say, not believing my eyes.

Ian is laughing.

I'm staring at him incredulously, and see Abigail doing the same.

"For c...c...centuries, your family has looked for _a_ t..tr...treasure," he tries to explain despite his hilarity, "and here you are, and in just a f...few years you have discovered the Templar treasure..." he uses his fingers to underline the count. "The Templar treasure, Atlantis, the Amber Room... what next? Should we move on to the missing Wonders of the World?"

I have to grin. "I'll settle for the stolen treasures of Atlantis."

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

We do not find those, though, but something almost as precious. We find the lost paperwork about the expedition. From the clues to the planning and then the execution of the said plans. All of the names are codes, and even the correspondence about the ship is using pseudonyms. 

We also find paperwork about other expeditions, other research the conspirators kept hidden from their leaders. Detailing trips to all corners of the globe... but none of the artefacts or notes collected during those journeys.

Then we find something concrete, a handwritten document, dated in the last days of the war. It is signed 'Wolf' and it seems like a part of a personal letter. Abigail translates it for us. 

" _Concerning the artefacts recovered from the fabled A (?), hid them with the aid of Y.G. It will amuse You to find out that the clue to the location is present in the recent works of O.F. – presented by H.H. to the Führer himself, unaware of their true value._ There's a page missing... I think it had a map of the location, or other instructions."

"Well, the fabled 'A' is easy... And I suppose 'H.H.' will be Heinrich Himmler, then. But as to the rest..."

Ian looks amused and shakes his head. "I'll be damned," he says softly, then turns to look at me. 

"I do believe I know the drawings he is talking about. They were stolen after Hitler's death and have changed hands many times since then..."

"How do you know about them?" I ask.

Ian merely smiles. 

"Why don't you contact the kids and ask them to meet us in Grenoble."

"You mean this is enough to drag them from their Frozen Wonderland?" I ask, using Riley's favourite description of his new home.

"Oh, it's big enough, and trust me – Mina would not forgive us for leaving her out of this." He pauses and his smile grows into a grin. "We're going treasure hunting."


	3. Grenoble; "Sing Some Other Golden Legend"

_three weeks later_

Hotel rooms are the same no matter the country, Riley thought, looking around yet another suite in yet another luxury hotel. Although, he had to admit, having roughed it in the field for as long as he had, he was ready to appreciate it a little more again. 

And after 24 hours of travelling he was more than ready to appreciate a warm bed, right about now. Getting from Antarctica to France wasn't easy – even if you were a millionaire. From Antarctica to Southern Australia on a supply plane, from Southern Australia to Sydney, from Sydney to Paris – and even on first class that was gruelling – and from Paris to Grenoble, where Ben and Ian were waiting for them with a rental car. Half an hour and they were in the hotel, in the earth-coloured suite, saying hi to Abigail.

Riley had actually hugged Ben at the airport, so glad to see someone else besides their small group in the Frozen Wonderland. To Ian he had merely offered his hand to shake. His shameless wife had of course hugged and kissed both men. 

She was looking even more tired than him, and Riley was actually a little worried. Mina was paler and tired more easily these days. And that made him feel protective.

"Look, guys, I'd love to catch up and hear why you wanted us here – not that I mind getting into civilisation a bit... but we really really need to sleep. And maybe get acquainted with that big big bath. But, you know, social stuff later?"

"Of course, you've had a long day – two days. Get some sleep. Call us when you wake up, no matter what time. You've flown through so many time zones it'll take a while for your bodies to readjust," Ben said, guiding Ian and Abigail towards the door.

"Yes, mom," Riley muttered but good-naturedly – he had, after all, missed him.

"Mmm, bed," he said after the others had left the room. 

"Bed good." Mina giggled, and all but fell on it.

"'Bed good'? Okay, Ms Linguist, time to go beddy-bye."

"For once I won't fight you," she said, smiling at him from where she lay. "I've missed the others. It's not quite the same without them. Can't wait to hear what they've found out!"

"I can. At least until we get some sleep."

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

After 15 hours of sleep they felt a little dazed but otherwise better than they had. They woke up just in time for dinner which was served in Ben and Ian's suite – they did not want to talk in a public restaurant.

Riley looked ecstatic at the sight of real food.

"What?" he exclaimed when he felt people's eyes on him. "We don't exactly get gourmet food in Santa's summer house. And airplane food is airplane food even in the first class."

"Learned anything new?" Ben asked after a while of polite chatter.

"Yeah. Don't read Lovecraft if you live in a cave in Antarctica," Riley replied.

"I'll keep that in mind," Ian said dryly, then turned to look at Mina who was obviously dying to tell her news.

"We found some remains!" Mina said. "I've contacted some people to start working on them."

"Hey, Ben, what's the opposite of a perk?" Riley asked innocently. Mina naturally caught the reference, and hit him in the arm. The others didn't even raise an eyebrow.

"You, probably. Tell us, Mina," Ben prompted.

"We found mummified remains piled haphazardly in a room. Seemed like natural preservation more than anything. It looked like someone – maybe the Nazis – just took them from where ever they had been and dumped them out of their way. We didn't have proper professionals to work on them so we requested some experts. I am actually hoping to meet some of them during this journey."

"We'll see what we can do," Ben promised, then glanced at Ian. It was obvious they had something to tell. Riley knew they wouldn't have called them if it wasn't something big.

"We found what we were looking for," Ben explained, smiling, and Mina sat up straight, dropping her fork. Riley froze, his fork in air half way to his mouth.

"Lake Toplitz?" Mina asked, breathlessly.

"Yes. We found the crates our conspirators hid there in the last days of the war. Not the artefacts," he added hastily, although he had said as much in his e-mail that invited the others to Europe. "But something almost as good."

"The Amber Room," Ian said dryly.

Riley had no idea what he was talking about but Mina stared at him incredulously.

"Well, yes, that too," Ben said. "But what I meant was the documentation concerning the excursion to Antarctica. And a clue to the location of the, well, treasure."

"Sorry, Mario, but the princess is in another castle," Riley intoned, and Mina giggled.

Ben and Ian just stared at them.

"I think we're too old for them," Ian concluded.

"You must excuse my husband. Tell us."

Ben then produced a letter and went on to explain its contents.

"Wait, wait... if the actual bit with instructions is missing, couldn't someone have already recovered the stuff from wherever they were hidden?" Riley asked.

"That's the risk we have to take. And as to the clues... I have to admit, even I am in the dark but Ian has this knowing glint in his eyes. Ready to tell us why we are in Grenoble?" 

"The names mentioned in the letter. I took a wild guess that 'Y.G.' was Yrjö von Grönhagen, and 'O.F.' Ola Forsell, members of an Ahnenarbe expedition to Finland and Karelia. You remember, one of those well documented expeditions of Himmler's?"

"Good work but that still doesn't explain..." Abigail started.

"I wouldn't have made the connection had the writer not mentioned a collection given to Hitler. It was bunch of drawings, from coastal Finland, not made during the first trip. Given to Hitler as a present by Himmler, stolen after his death, disappeared for a couple of years, reappeared a few years later, changed hands a couple of times, always outside the legal network. In the sixties the collection ended up in a museum somewhere in France but was stolen again a few years ago."

"Wow, how do you know these things?" Riley asked Ian. "I mean, is there a Bad Guy Weekly that keeps you updated?"

Mina looked at him, obviously shocked at his lack of tact but Ian seemed unruffled.

"Yeah. But I haven't paid the subscription for two years so they booted me off the fraternity," he replied seriously. 

"You were telling us they were stolen...?" Abigail prompted. 

"Yes. But I know where they are now," Ian answered, smiling.

"Of course you do," Riley said after a tiny pause.

"Do I really want to know?" Ben asked, but he was also smiling.

"Back in 1993 when they were stolen from the museum they ended up in the hands of a millionaire collector who shall remain nameless..."

"So we just go ask him to let us see it?" Riley interjected.

"He doesn't have them anymore." Ian was smiling widely.

"It was a brilliant job," he told them, still smiling. "I mean, it's not like the collector could inform the police that the drawings he wasn't supposed to have in the first place were stolen. And as I was the go-between..."

"Wait, you arranged the theft? From the museum?" Mina interrupted.

"I... negotiated the deal, yes. As I was saying... because I was his link to the criminal world I was the one he came to to find the culprits and punish them the extra-legal way... I found him a scapegoat who had conveniently been offed by someone else and with forged evidence he believed his treasure forever lost."

"So who has it?" Ben asked, smiling.

"Another rich collector?" Mina suggested.

"Points to the beautiful lady," Ian said, bowing his head a little.

"So, what, you just march in and ask to see some art he can't admit owning?" Riley said.

"Yes," Ian said, grinning unrepentantly. "Since he knows I can steal them from him if I want to, he'll be more than happy to help. If not, well... I designed his security system."

"That seems silly, if he knew you were a criminal who had betrayed your previous employer..." Abigail frowned.

"But he didn't. I was the head of his security, not a random criminal. I had held the position for years, even before the first theft. It was a very useful occupation."

"I love your brain," Riley said, fascinated.

"I've got dibs on his brain. And the other parts of him," Ben said, grinning.

"And that's why we're in Grenoble?" Abigail clarified.

"Yes. Monsieur F and his collection have just removed themselves from his summer house to his winter quarters here."

"How do you know that if they booted you of the fraternity?" Riley asked, almost seriously.

"What do you think? I read the news."

"Well excuse me, I'm a bit behind on news living in Antarctica!" 

"Rubbish, you're on-line every day," Mina corrected.

"Well, not every day, the connection tends to be a bit dodgy. But, wow, the acoustics are great. I hooked up a decent audio system up into the first room we slept in, remember? Great sounds."

"Fascinating, I'm sure," Abigail said but she smiled so Riley took no offence.

"So, what, you go visit your shady past, then?" Riley asked Ian.

"Riley!" Mina admonished him again. "Behave."

"What? He was a criminal, it's not a big secret. He doesn't mind. Do you, Ian?" 

"Well, _I_ mind, Mr Poole, and I'm the one you're married to!"

"Hey, cool down, babe..." Riley started, bemused at the show of temper. Mina wasn't usually the type to fly off the handle at small things.

Mina close her eyes and seemed to count to ten.

"I'm fine," she said, tersely.

"It's okay," Ian said, reaching for her hand. "I don't mind Riley's version of humour. After all, I _was_ a criminal."

"That's not the point," Mina replied, turning her hand to hold Ian's for a moment. "It's not nice."

"He's not a nice guy, haven't you learned that yet?" Ben interjected, obviously trying to defuse the mood.

"Hey! I'm nice. I rescue puppies and smile at children."

Mina smiled at that, and turned to face her husband. "Yes, but you smile creepily."

"I represent that statement," he fell back on the old joke, careful not to piss her off in her mood. PMS? 

The rest of the meal went without an incident until Riley put his foot in his mouth again, with another dig at Ian's past.

”Would you just _stop_ needling Ian already? I know he doesn't mind but I do. I said I do, and expect you to take my wishes into account at least occasionally!” Mina said tetchily, and all but glowered at her husband.

”Whoa, protective much,” Riley muttered. Which, on closer inspection, was not a good idea as Mina bolted up, and almost shouted his parting shot.

”Well, I'm sorry for caring about my friends.”

Following her burst, Mina ran from the room, and Riley stared after her, flabbergasted.

"What's up with her? I swear, she gets worse every day," he said, still not sure what had actually happened.

"Are you sure she's not pregnant?" Ian asked.

At Riley's pointed look he clarified: "That's how Joanna used to get during the first months."

"Joanna?"

"My wife."

Riley's first thought was that his jaw was probably hanging open. It wasn't. His second was the realisation Abigail's jaw was. His third thought was 'well, duh, he's almost fifty, he probably did have relationships before Ben', and the one he finally settled on was, 'at least Ben doesn't look surprised.'

“You have a child?” Abigail got out.

“No. They... died,” Ian said simply, and as Ben reached out to hold his hand even Riley understood not to probe.

He got up instead, folding his napkin.

“Excuse me, I think I need to go check on Mina.”

“Go ahead. We'll schedule a meeting with Ian's mysterious collector for tomorrow,” Ben said.

”You could try chocolate,” Abigail suggested.

Riley opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, then shut it, admitting that Abigail might actually have a point. After all, she had inside information.

”Uhh... any idea where I might find some at this hour?”

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

Riley found Mina crying softly in their room.

“I'm sorry,” she said the same moment he said the exact same words.

They shared a small smile. Hers got wider when he warily offered her the box of chocolates he had been holding behind his back.

“I don't know what's got into me lately,” she said, wiping her tears with a frustrated gesture. “Just... got a bit emotional seeing them after so long, or maybe it's being back in civilisation or something.”

“Hormones,” Riley teased softly, taking her into his arms, letting the box fall on the floor. 

She faked a punch on his arm but let him hold her for a long time.

When they parted she picked up the chocolate.

”You're pretty smart, every now and then,” she told him, attacking the insides hungrily.

Relieved that she hadn't taken the chocolate as an insult Riley merely smiled, selfishly taking credit for Abigail's idea. He was sure Abigail would understand. And it wasn't like he couldn't have thought of it on his own. Eventually.

“Did you know Ian was married?” Riley asked after a while, when her eating had slowed down.

“He's married?”

“No, I mean... he was. And they had a child. But they died. That's all I know,” he hastened to say before she could get the questions out.

“No, I didn't. Can't blame him for not talking about it, though.”

“Me neither. Come on, you need some more sleep.”

“What about the drawings?” she asked even as she started moving towards the bed and removing her clothes.

“Tomorrow,” Riley said absent-mindedly, eyes on her exposed skin.

Mina noticed his stare and smiled wickedly. “I thought you said sleep,” she teased, purposefully slowing her movements.

He smirked, unbuttoning his own shirt.

“In time.”

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

The visit to the white villa of 'Monsieur F' was almost anti-climactic. The old collector did not meet them but had arranged for his secretary to show them the drawings. The others didn't know what measures Ian had had to use to get them the permission and, quite frankly, didn't care.

There were seven drawings in all, originals in a display case and copies for them to study. Ian signed a document stating they would not publish the pictures or show them to anyone who could endanger their owner. 

They didn't stay long, merely confirmed that the copies matched the originals in every detail. As they were leaving, Ian told the blank-faced secretary to tell his boss that 'they were even'. The man merely nodded in return and showed them out.

“Well, that was lots of fun,” Riley said. “What happens now?”

“It's five o'clock,” his wife replied. “Tea happens.”

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

The Americans declined the offer of tea and left to arrange for their journey to Finland, and to find an expert who could help them figure out the area the pictures depicted. Ian and Mina ordered the tea from room service and settled in the latter's room.

Mina was half way through her second cup before she could mention the subject she'd being dying to ask Ian about for two days.

“Riley told me about... your wife,” she said, carefully, wary of his reaction.

He merely smiled a little sadly.

“Would you... tell me about it?”

“What do you want to know? I was young – we were both young, and... well, hardly a match made in Heaven.”

“Why?” she frowned.

"I was the wrong side of everything, born on the wrong side of the blanket to the wrong side of the street," Ian listed. "Oh, and the wrong side of the law," he added, as an afterthought. "But her parents didn't know that."

"Did she?"

"Yes, Joanna knew everything."

“And she married you anyway. She must have loved you very much.”

“Yes. Part of it was her desire to escape her stifling home life but she did truly love me. And she deserved better than what she got. I wasn't... because of where I grew up, I wasn't that good at talking about... my feelings. I've never been. Not until...” 

“Ben,” Mina supplied when he faltered. 

Quick smile. “Yes, Ben.”

They were quiet for a while, Mina basking in the feeling of closeness. She was sure he wouldn't have told that to just anyone.

“It's weird,” she started, the stopped, fearing that saying it aloud would shatter the mood.

“What?”

“I just don't get it. I mean, I'd understand it if you looked like my father but...” she bit off the rest, blushing.

He got up from his chair to sit down next to her on the sofa.

“And you look nothing like me,” he said, grinning. “But that doesn't stop me from feeling absurdly paternal.”

She sighed. “Thank God, I thought I was making a fool of myself. I mean, you're a friend but...”

“I am. But Ben also teases me about adopting you ages ago.”

“Riley says the same,” Mina smiled. “Well, sort of.”

“Well, that's settled then,” he said, casually, and Mina could well see that he still wasn't too comfortable about all this emotional talk.

“What happened to Joanna?” she asked softly, taking his hand.

“She was seven months pregnant when the house we lived in burnt down. She... they didn't make it.” 

“I'm sorry,” she said, squeezing his hand. 

“She was only 21. I wasn't much older. My... our child would have been 27 this year,” he finished quietly.

"I'll be 27 this December," Mina said softly.

This time there was no sadness in Ian's smile when he met her eyes.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

After that they stayed on easier subjects, Mina telling about their discoveries in Atlantis and Ian about their adventures in Germany and Austria.

She was aware of a slight feeling of nausea even as they talked but as that was nothing unusual after a meal for her these days, she paid no attention to it until it got worse. And then much worse, and before she had time to apologise she had dashed to the nearest trash can and was throwing up the tea and toast.

When she was done, Ian was there, offering her paper towels and a glass of water wordlessly, then helped her to sit on the sofa while he got rid of the can.

"Are you all right?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

"Yes, I... I don't feel ill, really, just..." She shook her head.

"Mina... Are you pregnant?"

She looked at him as if he'd gone insane, then her eyes widened, and she took out her palmtop, checking the calendar.

"Bloody hell," she got out, and started smiling. “Some scientist. I can't even count.”

He returned the smile.

"I... I need to buy a test. And tell Riley."

She was still pale but glowing.

"Why bother with a home test when we can probably get you a doctor's appointment immediately?"

"Oh, yeah... keep forgetting my changed circumstances," she said, grinning, and took his hand, squeezing hard.

"Happy?" he asked, pointlessly.

"Delirious. Though it will disturb my work. And I wonder what Riley will say. We haven't actually talked about children expect in a, you know, general, we'll-have-them-one-day way."

"I'm sure Riley will..."

"Riley will be very curious to hear why you're sitting here holding his wife's hand."

Riley walked in just as Ian had started his sentence and they both turned to look at him.

"Mina! Are you okay?" he exclaimed as soon as he saw her face.

"Just felt a little faint, and had another bonding moment with my fellow Brit," she replied, smiling, and let go of Ian's hand to get up to hug Riley.

"How did it go?" she asked.

"Fine, fine. What's wrong? You over-exerted yourself again?"

"I'll... leave you to it. You know where we are if you need anything, kiddo," Ian reminded Mina, and after a moment's hesitation kissed her on the cheek before exiting the room.

"What was all that?" Riley asked, more confused than jealous. After all, it was pretty obvious Ian's feelings were paternal more than anything else.

"I think you'd better sit down," Mina suggested, smiling.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

“Pregnant?” Riley repeated for what must have been twelfth time.

Mina bit her lip, suddenly uncertain of his feelings about the matter. Then he got down on his knees, and hugged her middle.

“For real?” he asked, eyes suspiciously shiny.

She just nodded, holding her breath.

“I'm gonna be a dad,” he said, wonderingly, and Mina smiled.

“You'll be a great dad,” she said, petting his hair.

“And you'll be an absent-minded mom, but we'll deal,” he teased lightly. “And at least the kid will have very rich godparents.”

"Godparents? You do remember I don't belong to a church, Riles?"

"Yeah, well I don't care about the 'God' part of it but... I want to ask Ben. He's my best friend. Well, besides you."

"What if I want to ask Ian?" she asked

"I thought you were casting him into the role of a grandfather," Riley teased.

"I've always felt close to him. Maybe it's just because we are both Brits among you Americans but I..."

"Hey, no need to get defensive, babe. I get it, I do. I... It took me some time to get over all that trying to kill us thing but... I think Anne helped me put it all in perspective. I don't mind having Ian as part of my family. And now that I've said that it sounds so weird I think I need a kiss."


	4. Finland; "This Cold and Cruel Country"

Abigail's contact in the Helsinki University was there to meet them at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. She told them she had contacted a colleague in the history department who was willing to meet them immediately.

It took almost an hour to get to the university from the airport, then their guide led them to professor Takala's office before excusing herself, explaining she had a lecture. 

“On civil war era USA. How I wish Abigail could do that one for me.”

Professor Takala's – 'please call me Heikki' – office made Mina feel right at home. Books and documents covered every surface and the few pictures on the wall were all maps.

The man himself was in his forties, turning grey and growing heavy in the middle. He reminded Mina of her old history teacher. 

“I am honoured to meet you,” he said, shaking Ben's hand enthusiastically. “All of you. What you have given to the historical community... I'm speechless.”

“Should we go to the coffee room where we can all sit or is your business... secret? I got the idea from Krista's call that you don't want much attention to your presence here.”

“Yes, we would prefer keeping this meeting as private as possible,” Ben said, offering the only guest chair to Mina.

“A new discovery?” their host asked, obviously exited at the possibility.

“You understand anything we say here must stay in the office?”

“Naturally, yes. I will not tell anyone anything you will tell me.”

“We have found clues that the missing treasures of Atlantis were hidden in here.”

“Here? Finland? By the Nazis who took them from Atlantis?”

“Here.”

Ian handed him the photocopies of the letters and documents they had found.

“They are in German, we do have the English translations if you need...?”

“I'm fine with these, thank you,” he replied, digging his glasses from his pocket. 

“Fascinating...” he muttered. “The drawings?” 

Ian handed him the copies wordlessly.

“Unbelievable!”

“I don't suppose you have any idea as to the place they depict?”

“No, unfortunately. The coast looks the same from the Russian side border to Norway, pretty much. You say these were drawn by Ola Forsell? I have seen no record of an expedition in coastal Finland... as to where Yrjö von Grönhagen would have hidden them... I would have expected Lapland, where there were German troops. They did have troops in the south, too but that was never... I wonder...”

He studied the drawings wordlessly for a couple of minutes. “I'm afraid we have to arrange for some help with these. Maybe the geological department... But I'm afraid even with all these landmarks it will be impossible to find the place unless someone has seen them previously. That one rock, for example... There were no further clues?”

“Well, presumably the recipient of that letter knew the expedition of von Grönhagen's the writer was alluding to, so to them it would have been more obvious.”

“I'm afraid I see no way to find the location except by going public with these. Maybe if I try to keep your names out of it and just say they are something I ran into in the course of my own research?”

“I'm afraid we're limited in the publicity by the owner of the originals, as well. He, uhh, didn't actually come by them legally.”

“Don't tell me. The less I know, the less sleep I lose over it. Okay then, how about I enlist the help of some of my co-workers and students. We have people from all over the country. And the archaeology people travel widely. We start small, only widening the search if needed. How does that sound?”

“And you'll keep our names out of it?”

“You have my word. I'm afraid someone will have seen you here and the word might get out but I'll tell anyone you were here on a social visit. That we met during some conference and you just looked me up when in town. I don't know how believable it will be but... I'll try.”

“Thank you.”

Ben shook his hand again and handed him a card with a number to the German mobile phone he and Ian had gotten to take care of local connections during their stay in Europe. 

“We can also be reached through the hotel, which is...?”

“Intercontinental,” Mina supplied, checking from the printout in her pocket. 

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

“Look, I don’t think we’ll hear from him any time soon, so go ahead and see a doctor already,” Ian said.

“I know you did the DIY test in the plane, but we’d all feel better if you’d see a professional, just to find out everything is okay,” Ben elaborated.

“For what it’s worth – I agree with them,” Abigail said.

Riley merely looked at her with his puppy dog eyes.

“Fine! Fine, jeez. To think that a little over a year ago I was a lonely woman with only her books for company, her parents on another continent, and now I have a… a _horde_ of people who are only interested in keeping me in line…” Mina muttered tetchily.

“Aww, babe, you know we’re just worried about you,” Riley said, moving to hug her.

“I know, I know. That’s the only reason I haven’t killed you guys yet!”

She hugged Riley, then moved to hug Ian, too. “It’s not like I’d change anything in my current life, and you know it. Fine, I’ll go ask the reception desk about doctors, okay?”

“We’d all breathe easier if we knew you were okay,” Ian said quietly.

“I’m _fine_. I feel _fine_. But just to satisfy you all, I’ll get an appointment. Okay? But if it clashes with the quest, you all know which one I’ll put first,” Mina threatened, smiling.

“Your and your – our – baby’s health, as you should,” Riley countered, grinning, and steered her towards the door.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Mina’s appointment with a gynaecologist was a few days later, and Riley took her there. The others stayed behind in the hotel room. 

Heikki had not made any progress in identifying the scenes in the drawings yet, and they had all spent the past days with their noses in reference books. Afraid of attracting too much attention they had not gone in the library themselves but Heikki had couriered countless tomes for them. 

They only paused in their research to eat, which is what they were doing when Heikki finally contacted them; Riley had promised to take Mina out to eat after her appointment.

The tinny rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" chiming from Ian’s pocket turned everyone’s head. He got up from the table to take the call and Ben shrugged at Abigail’s expression. “It’s his idea of a joke,” he explained.

“That is wonderful news!” Ian was saying to the phone.

Their attention was now firmly on Ian, getting up from the table, the meal forgotten, both just waiting for him to finish his call.

“We’ll be waiting for you,” he finished.

He turned to the others, grinning widely. He kissed Ben on the lips, then turned to Abigail, arm around Ben’s shoulders.

“Heikki found someone who recognised the place in the pictures. They’re both on their way here.”

“That _is_ wonderful news!” Ben admitted, grinning as well.

“What is?” Riley asked from the door. He and Mina had apparently arrived just in time to hear the last statement. 

“Never mind about that for a moment, do _you_ have wonderful news?” Ian asked, disentangling himself from Ben to walk to Mina.

“Well, that’s depends on your point of view, grandpa,” Riley grinned.

“I’m fine, baby is fine, tell me the news!” Mina rushed them, hurriedly hugging ‘grandpa’ Ian.

“Heikki and a colleague are on their way as we speak. Apparently, she recognised one of the pictures, the one with the big rock. That’s all I know.”

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Heikki’s colleague turned out to be a thirty-something woman he introduced as Elina Kytönen. (“That’s K-Y-T-O with dots-N-E-N”) (“Just call me Elina, you’ll sprain your tongue otherwise.”)

They went straight to the point. 

“She came to my room to discuss something else, and asked why I had a picture of ‘Tuolikivi’ on my desk. Seems her family owns the land it’s on.”

“Okay, coincidence much?” Abigail said, sounding almost affronted (and surprisingly lot like Riley). 

“What did you expect? Map, star disc, Atlantis, ring a bell?” Riley reminded her.

“Thank you for your contribution, Riley. Where is it? And do the other pictures look familiar at all?”

“I did not tell her what this is about, I thought you could do the honours,” Heikki explained, and Ben proceeded to do so.

“Wow,” was Elina’s first reaction. “You mean I’ve been picnicking right next to the treasures of Atlantis? Wow.”

“Picnicking?”

“See this? The big rock is on the mainland shore, this one here seems to portray the tiny islands on the way to a bigger island a little further away. This one is quite noticeably the highest point of the island, and I know there are some caves nearby, because my mom used to tell me about the auntie Naana who lived in the cave, knitting, because occasionally you could hear the clicking of her knitting needles. At least, that’s what her mother had told her, but you couldn’t hear the sounds anymore. 

“I think that’s because someone disturbed the caves at some point. And I’d _definitely_ have heard if anything had been found. So… shall we go find your treasure?”

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

It was not as easy as that, of course. But at least this was just a reconnaissance mission as they had no idea about the kind of equipment – or permissions – they'd need for extracting the treasure, assuming they'd even find it. All they needed, really, was transportation. Which, considering their crew had grown into seven people by this time, wasn't that simple. 

Ian and Heikki (whom they couldn't very well drop at this stage) considered the issue with Elina as she was the only one who knew the lay of the land, and debated over the merits of two cars versus a minibus. 

"Two cars would attract less attention, especially if one of them was mine," Elina said in the end. "It's not like there are many people this time of the year but..."

"You have a point," Ian admitted. "We do want to keep this quiet for as long as possible."

"So if we meet anyone, you are my American friends whom I'm showing around the historical sights. We've got a Viking burial site and everything. The oldest graveyard on an island still in use in all of Finland. Not to mention, a cave filled with looted Nazi treasure! Okay, so maybe I'll leave the last bit out."

"I like her already," Riley said. This latest specimen was of course not as hot as Mina or even Anne, and, really, he did have Mina these days, but he still approved of Ben's ability to collect young women to help in his Quests. Besides, as a staid married man he appreciate her more for the irreverence than her looks. Well, that's what he'd tell Mina anyway.

"A Viking site?" Ben was distracted from the point. "I thought they never came this far?"

"Well, the long-held belief was that they tried but we kicked their ass. All I know, we used to picnic on this small island with a big pile of rocks we were always told is a Viking burial site. Looks authentic to me, but what do I know, not my field."

"No," said Ian forcefully, looking at the expression on Ben's face. "We will not be sidetracked by another treasure hunt when we still haven't finished the previous one."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

The drive was three hours, and the last half an hour on a dirt track through a forest. Mina kept feeling sick the whole way, and the first thing she did when they reached their destination was throwing up in the woods. 

"I used to do that all the time when I was a kid," Elina consoled the others when they looked worried. "The curves and the uneven terrain were always too much to me."

"It's not that," Riley said, distracted. "Are you okay, baby?" he asked, kneeling down next to his wife and offering her a bottle of water Ian had dug up from their bags.

"Both of your babies are fine," Mina reassured him, getting up. 

"Oh. Congratulations," Elina said, catching on. "We should get going. There's only so much sunlight this time of the year and trust me, we do not want to get stuck in the woods after dark. There are no street lights here."

They walked to the shore and could see the island looming in front of them, surprisingly close to the mainland. The big rock of one of the drawings was clearly recognisable, as were the tiny islands in the middle. 

"Wow," Mina said, with wonder in her voice. Ben was grinning widely.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Elina's family had three boats in their wooden boat house, of which she chose the biggest and oldest. "The sea is a bit rough. We need the power, and this has enough room for all of us."

Before they set off she dug up life vests for everyone. "Even though you can see land on every side and the distances look small it is still the ocean and I have healthy respect for it. We need to go slow.”

At first the speed she insisted on going felt frustrating but when they left the shelter of the shore even Riley, who had least experience on the ocean, had to appreciate the difficulty of piloting the small vessel among the suddenly huge waves. 

Riley looked at Ben and saw him nodding his head as their guide steered them head on towards the waves. Okay, maybe she _did_ know what she was doing.

When they approached the island that was their destination the waves got smaller again, and their landing on a sandy bit of the shore was uneventful. They tied the boat down and started their trek towards the woods.

They had barely reached the first trees when Riley realised the stuff falling from the sky was actually snow. 

“Snow? This early?” he asked, looking at the natives.

“Hey, you're right, first snow!” Elina enthused. 

“Is it going to be a problem?” Ben asked, eyes on the sky.

“Shouldn't be, the first snow fall never stays on the ground long, and there were no warnings about storms. But let's hurry up, just in case.”

Elina led them through the woods, choosing from seemingly identical paths among the pines and firs until they reached a clearing on a rocky slope. When they looked around they realised they were on a hill, even though the ascent hadn't been noticeable. 

“Welcome to my picnic spot,” their guide said, smiling widely. “Now to find the entrance. Show me those pics.”

Riley took a moment to look at the view while she conferred with Ben and Ian and the drawings. The snow was falling heavier by the minute, and the ground was starting to turn white. 

“There, I think,” Elina said, and Riley turned in time to see Mina hurrying towards the rocky formation first.

The next hour resembled their flower hunt in the Antarctica, all those months ago. Even the amount of snow seemed to match, and Riley suddenly wished he had worn different shoes. And that his wife had gloves and that she wasn't so eager to kneel on the cold ground.

It was also totally unfair that Ian was the one to discover the tiny opening in the rock face. Did that man have eagle eyes or something?

After careful study (and dusting off plenty of snow) they discovered that the opening was a crack between the rock wall and a boulder of stone, and after nearly dislocating Riley's spine (seriously, he almost died right there, stop laughing, woman!) the men managed to move it enough for someone slim to wiggle their way in.

Riley really didn't like the sound of that.

“Abigail is tiny! She can go!”

Mina looked at him like he had said something sacrilegious.

“That's my treasure in there,” she said, lightly, but Riley could hear the steel in her voice. 

“But...”

“It'll be safe,” Ben said, from where he had been trying to peer in through the crack with a torch. Huh, Riley hadn't even thought about torches, good think he wasn't in charge of the arrangements.

Riley held on to Mina's hand as she wiggled her body through the way too narrow opening, and nearly had a heart attack when her grip suddenly got tighter and she started shouting. When he could make out the words through his panic he started grinning, despite everything. 

“They're here! They're here!” 

Abigail pushed Riley out of the way, and made her way into the cave.

“What do you see?” Ben asked, again trying to see inside the cave.

“There are boxes... like those in the lake Toplitz. Six, seven... they are piled high in places and it's too dark to see... Mina?” Abigail sounded almost girlish in her excitement.

“One of them is broken,” Mina shouted. “And the contents are spilling out – oh my god!”

“Honey! Honey, are you okay? Mina!” Riley shouted into the sudden silence and pushed Ben away from the opening, trying in vain to make it through.

“It's okay, I'm okay, it's okay,” Mina's voice made it through his panic and he stopped his wriggling.

“Don't do that to me, woman,” he said, voice shaking. 

“We found... there's a star disc here. And a box of... I think these are the seals they used to stamp the symbols...” Abigail's voice sounded reverent. 

“That's not all.” Mina sounded like she was crying. “There are more seals. They are hieroglyphs. And something else... they are... they look like _letters_. Riles, all our dating efforts...”

“Are you sure you should be doing that?” Abigail was asking, and Riley heard something break inside the cave.

“I just want to see what else there is!” 

“We can't risk exposing more of th... oh my god.”

“Oh my god,” Mina echoed her. “I think... I think we can go now.” She sounded... Riley couldn't even decide, and then he saw her face. She really looked like she had seen a god. 

She met his eyes through the crack, and smiled. “I think I found my bloody Rosetta stone.”

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

 

Mina couldn't tear her eyes from the clay tablet she held in her hands, even when her husband tried to help her out the cave. It was a star disk. But the markings were not the heads and flowers of 'their' star disk. This one was stamped with hieroglyphs.

She knew she probably shouldn't have extracted it from the find, for all she knew she was stealing from the government or the landowners but... she couldn't leave it behind. So close to her greatest dream coming true, deciphering a new language... 

The others were talking about the logistics of extracting the treasure, she heard helicopters being mentioned, but she couldn't concentrate on that, she kept staring at her find, trying to remember the sequence of signs on the Phaistos disk, reading the hieroglyphs over and over again, recognising some, but the rules of the language were shady in her mind, years since she studied it.

She knew it wouldn't be enough on its own, of course not - the Rosetta stone hadn't been, either - but who knew what else there was to be discovered in those boxes? Maybe more star disks, in more languages...

Riley's warning shout came too late, her mind and eyes being on the disk, and then she felt her feet losing their footing.

She had wandered too close towards the edge of the hill, and the snow made the stone slippery. Her every instinct shouted at her to let go of the tablet to regain her balance, to grab for purchase, but the disk was _clay_ , it might not survive the drop, and it would be lost in the snow and she would be fine, the drop wasn't that long and... She screamed, trying to regain her balance, throw herself backwards without the balancing aid of her arms and then Riley was there, his hands secure on her shoulders, round her waist, and the disk was safe, she was safe...

“Watch out,” she snapped, when Riley's arms threatened her grip on the disk.

“Watch out? _Watch out?_ Mina! You... that damn disk...”

“I could survive the bumps, the disk wouldn't,” she said, tetchily, trying to disentangle herself from his arms.

“What about our baby?” he yelled, and Mina could _feel_ her face going pale. 

The baby. She was carrying their baby, and the fall...oh god, she had forgotten the new life inside her, the concept somewhat abstract until now. 

Apparently Riley could see the shock on her face because he closed his mouth with a snap, as if fighting to keep the angry words inside. She wanted to hug him, to get comfort for the belayed feelings of fear, to feel his forgiveness in his touch but... she feared he wasn't ready for that.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

 

Riley watched his wife walking a few feet from him, and bit his tongue to keep the angry words in. 'One of those,' he had joked, long ago. 'Obsessed.' And this time her obsession had threatened the life of his child. 

He closed his eyes, and followed the others through the snow. 

Snow, always snow. He latched on the thought and used it to distract himself from the anger he could still feel bubbling inside himself. He escaped to whining.

"Snow. Snow! Always snow. The way snow permeates every aspect of my life these days, we'll be naming our child after it. Hey, natives, what's the Finnish word for snow?" 

"Lumi," Elina replied, and Riley was actually testing the word on his tongue.

"Lu-me?" Sounded kinda pretty, actually.

"L-U-M-I," Heikki clarified. “It's actually a girl's name here.”

Mina seemed to take his choice of subject as a sign of his forgiveness, and moved closer to take his hand. He held it tight, unsure whether he wanted to hold on and never let go... or let go and run away as fast as he could. 

“I once saw Ben drop Abigail to save a piece of paper,” he said, quietly. “You have to understand... I'm not like you people, and I can never **be** like you people." 

"That 'piece of paper' was the Declaration of Independence!" Abigail interrupted defensively, turning to face them and bringing the whole procession to a halt on the narrow path.

"My point exactly. For me, human life – any life – will always be more valuable than any object, be it my car, the Declaration, or a frigging Rosetta stone for your precious language." 

He was so angry again he felt like he was going to burst. He didn't want to do this here, not with them, not when all of the others were in the other camp, Abigail at least ready to side with Mina, and they weren't even that friendly.

But Ben surprised him, his best friend, who looked at him with compassion, and grabbed Abigail's arm to pull her along. Ian walked after them, Elina and Heikki taking the lead. Riley stood there, by the pine trees, and held on to Mina's hand, afraid to let go.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

 

He wanted to shout but when he spoke it felt like he was whispering.

"You are carrying my child and yet you are willing to injure yourself – maybe die, to protect a piece of clay?" 

"Riley... Riles... Love..."

"No! Are you _really_ saying you value that dead bit of mud with markings more than our baby?" He had never been so serious about anything, or so scared. If she said 'yes', he would still love her but could never ever go back to...

She was crying.

"If it was _my_ life, I'd say yes." She was never anything but brutally honest, and Riley felt like crying himself.

"My insignificant little life compared to the information potentially carried on that tablet, and what it might mean for the world? The choice is simple."

"But," she went on before he could say anything. "It's not really that simple anymore. Because I value you, and you place value on my life, too. In a test environment I couldn't make the decision without consulting you. But this is not the controlled environment of a lab, this is real life, and there was no time to think. And," she paused, letting a small smile play on her lips. "I quite forgot about the baby. What ever you think, Riles, never, ever doubt that I want and love this child as much as you."

"Well," Riley said, wavering against his better judgement. He didn't want to be angry, and by god, he didn't want to be _scared_. "Don't... please don't forget the baby again."

"In a few months it will be quite impossible," she replied, reacting to the lightness in his voice despite the tears.

"Yeah, but think about it... If I have to constantly follow you around making sure you don't forget our offspring in stores or parks..."

Mina laughed, obviously knowing she had been forgiven and the crisis avoided, and moved to embrace him. 

"I could do it, just to have you follow me around forever."

Riley sighed, pulled her closer, and said seriously: "I don't think you need to go that far. I'll be doing it anyway."

"You don't need to make it sound like a life sentence."

"I'm... scared, all right? I'm not like you, and you're not like me, and it... it scares me. One day we could really hurt each other because of it."

"You aren't comparing me to Anne, are you?"

"No. I don't think you'll ever pull a gun on me, no. But if someone told you they'll either blow up Atlantis and destroy every note you've ever made, or shoot me, and they ask you to make the choice..."

Mina swallowed, not breaking the eye contact for a second.

"I love you," she said desperately.

He sighed. "And I love you. Will it be enough?"

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., 

Ben and Ian couldn't help but hear the most of the conversation, the forest silent but for their foot steps, even a whisper carrying far. They met each other's eyes seriously.

"Poor children," Ian said quietly.

"At least we don't have that problem," Ben said, offering him a lopsided smile.

"No," Ian answered seriously. "We've both seen the choices we made."

"Ian..."

"Don't. I chose the treasure over you, and so did you. That's who we are. That's what we live with."

"I wonder... Had Abigail been pregnant with my child would I have still chosen the Declaration over her?" Ben mused, knowing Ian was done with his jealousy on the subject of his relationship with Abigail.

Ian looked away, and when he answered his mind was obviously in the past.

"Yes, you would have. I suppose I never told you why I wasn't in the building with Joanna when it burnt down?"

Alarmed by his dead tone Ben moved closer. "No."

"I was doing my job, chasing my dream, even though I knew leaving her alone was dangerous. The men I had been working with..."

"You couldn't have known that they would..."

"The risk was there, it was enough. I should have been protecting her and our child, and I wasn't. Which is why I know you will _always_ choose the treasure over me, and I will _always_ choose the treasure over you."

There was no guilt in his voice, not any more – he was done with it. There was no reprimand either and Ben walked closer.

"Doesn't mean I love you any less," Ben said when Ian finally met his eyes, and they both smiled.

"No, it doesn't."

The kiss that followed was forgiveness for a fight they didn't have.


	5. The Netherlands; "Songs of Ancient Wit and Wisdom"

They left the logistics of the treasure extraction for their new Finnish allies. With the winter on its way, they might have to wait for the ocean to freeze over to be able to move the boxes. The Finnish government was more than happy to step in to guard the cave and take over the job. (Elina told them her relatives weren't well pleased with the army presence but very stoked about the presence of a treasure, even if they hadn't officially gone public with it yet.) 

As much as Mina wanted to stay and study each piece that was revealed, she had her job - her treasure - to go back to. But before she could return to Atlantis, there was one thing she needed to do. She wanted to visit Anne, to share with her what they had found.

The Dutch woman had been a part of the discovery, it had been her grandfather moving those treasures. Mina felt it was only fair Anne would hear the end of the story from them, and not from a newspaper.

Riley didn't share her views but promised to come with her. The others decided to come to the Netherlands as well, not wanting to part ways yet. Elina and Heikki were looking after the extraction, after all, so they had no reason to linger in Finland either.

Still, Mina was alone when she drove to the hospital. 

She got out of her rental car and looked at the gloomy building, and the even gloomier view of the railway tracks. They had put Anne here.

No, no, her own obsession did. Mina remembered the words she'd said to Riley when trying to explain why she needed to see Anne. "We have all been teetering on the line between obsession and insanity. She just crossed it most blatantly."

Besides, she _had_ been a friend.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,

The room they met in reminded Mina of a prison. They were seated around a table and she almost expected Anne to arrive in prison overalls.

She didn't. But the woman in her loose clothing bore little resemblance to the cool academician she had known.

She looked... scared, almost, and her first question explained some of it. 

“Are... is Dr Gates alright? And Ian? They survived the shooting?”

“Yes, they are both all right," Mina reassured her. "Like nothing ever happened. Didn’t anyone tell you?”

“They did... but I didn’t believe them. I was... quite out of it for a long time.”

They looked at each other over the table for a moment, Anne looking more comfortable, and Mina couldn't help but smile and share her news.

“Anne... we found the artefacts.”

“From Atlantis?” Her face showed inly interest and joy, so Mina explained much of their adventures in trying to locate the boxes.

“So there was something in the Lake Toplitz!” She laughed at that.

“Yes. And... I brought you something.”

Mina showed her one of the chesspiece like casts most likely used in making the Phaistos Disk, and Anne started to weep.

Mina hesitated for a second, then got up and walked around the table to hug her. Anne clung to her while trembling from the strength of her sobs.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry... I’m so glad none of you were killed. It feels so incredible now that I could have... that I did...”

“It’s okay,” Mina said, and it really was. This woman was unlike the obsessed professional they had met in Greece.

“Would you like to keep the mould?” she asked.

“No! It belongs in a museum!” Anne declared with her eyes wide.

“I thought so too, but I... I wanted you to have something of the find. After all, it did mean so much to you that...”

“...that I almost went crazy from it? Well, no ‘almost’ about it, actually.”

“You seem better, much better. Will you... when will you get out?”

“I don’t know. I mean, for now, I would choose to stay here. I’m constantly afraid that I might break down again. I was afraid seeing you would bring that irrational anger back, but my doctor said it should be okay, and it is, and I’m glad you came.”

She got up from the hug and looked at Mina’s stomach for the first time. For her the smallest bump seemed big enough clue. She smiled, and looked up to her face. 

“You and Riley?”

“Yes,” Mina replied, smiling widely, “and a baby makes three.”

“And... Ian and Ben, they are still together?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t suppose Abigail has found anyone,” Anne said, dryly, and Mina fought the urge to laugh. 

“No,” she said, grinning, and when Anne grinned back it felt like their old friendship again.

“Will you tell them all congratulations for finding yet another treasure from me? If you think they would care to hear it?”

“I’m sure they will. After all, they do know a bit about out-of-proportion obsessions themselves.”

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

“She seems fine,” Mina said to the doctor she had talked to before the visit.

“It is a good day, and she has made lot of progress,” the man explained as they were walking towards the parking lot.

“I have something for her... I wanted to ask your opinion of it. You are aware of the whole deal with Atlantis and the disc?”

“It has come up, yes,” the doctor said dryly. 

Mina liked the humour in his eyes, and let her own smile show.

“I thought as much. Well... I have some photos and reproductions of the texts we have discovered on Atlantis, and... well.” The contents of the new find weren’t public yet so she hesitated over what to say. “And I wanted her to have them, so that she can try working on them as well. If you don’t think that will be too... dangerous, or something.”

“I think that might be a great thing for her, actually, to remind her that before it became an obsession it was a healthy interest. It might make her feel good about her studies again, doing something productive, and even help in learning to deal with the real world again.”

Mina leafed through the folder, and finally added a scan of her ‘Rosetta stone’. She wanted to be the first one to decipher the language. But she also wanted to be fair. She wanted to share the excitement. And if she was going to set up an Internet site for everyone to see, she could share it with the one woman for whom it would mean as much as for her – after all, Phaistos disc had been Anne’s obsession long before they found Atlantis.

She borrowed a pen from the doctor.

_“Your obsession meets mine – race you to results! – Mina”_

“I promised I would keep in touch. But I’ll be going back to Antarctica now. Here’s an address that will reach me eventually. If she ever wants to be in touch...”

“I will keep it for her.”

“And if she cracks the language, call!”

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Another country, another hotel, another shared suite. Mina shared the details of her visit with the others over afternoon tea (and coffee).

“I’m glad she is doing well,” Ben said when she had finished.

“Me too, believe it or not,” Ian said, rubbing the scar in his arm through clothing instinctively.

They sat in silence for a while, no one seeming to know what to say.

“Well, another adventure over,” Abigail finally said.

“As much as I want to get back to my work... I will miss you all,” Mina admitted.

“Well, we’ll just have to get together for another adventure sooner or later,” Ben said, grinning. “After all, the Ahnenerbe documents we found did detail other expeditions of which nothing is known...”

"Is there something in Australia?" Riley asked. "It would be nice, for once, to go somewhere _warm_. Like, now."

"You're not coming back home with me?" Mina asked innocently.

"Home. Atlantis is 'home'. Yes, dammit, I'm coming home with you to catalogue that damn script. But we could have a _vacation_. And no, this doesn't count because there was snow. Nothing with snow counts."

"Well, there's the one in Brazil..." Ben suggested.

"Brilliant! Let's go!" Riley jumped up and pulled out his sunglasses.

He looked at Mina and his face was filled with love and excitement. They would be all right, despite everything. Riley would always be Riley, and she would always be herself, but as long as he looked at her like that, they would be all right.

"Or we could go meet my parents in Ethiopia," she suggested, grinning.

"We were thinking about an actual vacation without Nazi presence, actually," Ben said, and pulled Ian close. 

"Yeah, a honeymoon," the older man clarified, and pulled him closer.

"It's customary to get married first," Abigail reminded them, smiling widely, and Mina noted how far she had come from the woman who couldn’t bear to hear about their relationship only a year ago.

"Yeah, it is," Ben replied pointedly, arms around Ian, eyes locked to his, both of them grinning happily.

"Oh my God, you're really..."


	6. Mina; “Fitting Ornaments for Heroes”

The first person born on the Antarctic mainland was Emilio Marcos Palma in 1978. After him, there have been two others. Lumi Joanna Benjamina Poole was the fourth, and I bet she's the first child born in Atlantis for at least two millennia.

In case you're wondering, 'Lumi' _is_ the Finnish word for snow – Riley insisted. And when he found 'Benjamina' from a book of baby names he insisted she'd get that as a second name, so I insisted we'd name her after Ian as well. 'Ian' is a Gaelic form of 'John', hence 'Johanna' would be its female form. Johanna. Joanna. It was too perfect to pass. So she became Lumi Joanna Benjamina. She's going to hate us when she grows up, I fear. We call her Lu-me. Our co-workers call her Mina junior. 

Ben and Ian came to witness her birth and to keep Riley from panicking. They wear matching heavy golden rings but when asked about their marriage ceremony, they just smile. Let them keep their secrets. 

But one day I will want to know why Ben has a new scar on his left hand and where they got those _very old_ rings.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The End - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  
_There are many other legends,  
Incantations that were taught me,  
That I found along the wayside …  
\- The Kalevala (transl. By Crawford)_   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sources: Wikipedia ('Homosexuality in Nazi Germany', 'Lake Toplitz', 'Antarctica', etc.); Heather Pringle: The Master Plan, Catherine Scott-Clark & Adrian Levy: The Amber Room; Crawford's translation of the Kalevala
> 
> Thanks to Sila for yet more Dutchisms! Thanks to Mr Niki (he chose the name;) for random historical data. Oh, and to my mom for the suggestion for the location of the treasure.
> 
> This is it, really. Despite Mina's hints there will not be a sequel. Nuh-uh. This series has been *5 years* in the making and that's it. Honestly.


End file.
